PBS Newshour: Hunger in America
By Heather Thursday Nov 19, 2009 6:00am
From The PBS Newshour Hunger in America:
JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight: hunger in America. Jeffrey Brown has our story.
JEFFREY BROWN: One in seven American households had a hard time putting enough food on the table last year, that from a new report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- 14.6 percent of U.S. households, nearly 50 million Americans, found themselves in need during 2008, an increase of 13 million people from the year before. The new figure is the highest since data collection began in 1995.
The USDA called the problem food insecurity, instead of hunger. But, by any name, President Obama said, the findings were unsettling. And his secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said it's a -- quote -- "wakeup call for the country."
Inside those numbers, a more dire toll: One-third of those in need said they have been forced to skip meals, cut portions significantly, or go without food altogether.
Cynthia Sibley helps coordinate the Simple Supper, a community meal and food bank run from a Methodist church in Eagle, Colorado. She says the recession has affected many levels of her community.
CYNTHIA SIBLEY, Simple Supper: It's hitting people that -- it's surprising a lot of us. And all of us here are feeling it in one way or another. And we know people who have either lost their homes, lost their jobs. It's -- you know, it's shaking us to the core. And I know that there are a lot of places across the country that this is occurring, but to see it, you know, firsthand and experience it...
JEFFREY BROWN: Nationwide, the report said, 17 million children did not have enough to eat last year. And the Agriculture Department predicted the numbers for this year are likely to be worse still.
And now to some close-to-the-ground views from two regions. J.C. Dwyer is with the Texas Food Bank Network, a nonprofit statewide group. He joins us from San Antonio. Lynn Brantley is president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
Mr. Dwyer, I wonder, first, did this report surprise you, based on what you're seeing there?
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This is so telling and the rethugs think that they don't have enough money.
We have enough cash handy to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan.
Are the hungry children old enough to get a job in the military or maybe with a privtae contractor?
The KBR food is poison but . . .
for stocking the food banks. Geez
Wealth inequality is at a historic level.
It is a war on the working class.
There's a lot we take for granted.
I have friends who are scraping to get by - rent, food, etc. The husband works as a housecleaner, she was working retail when Mervyn's imploded. She's found some part-time work at Target only recently.
They're not fat, they're not lazy, they're not sitting on the dole.
But they're not Republicans worshipping the almighty dollar.
...is why I watch The News Hour every night. It is the last bastion of the Fourth Estate on television.
Jim Lehrer and his staff have not mastered the art of weeping on command or wrapping themselves in the flag so tightly they can't breathe. They don't huff and puff self-righteously about the crap that passes for truth after you've had a have dozen Buds at the local tavern. Because of those things O'Really and Beck will probably not feel threatened. Of course, the Beckerheads wouldn't understand what Brown is saying anyhow.
the OLD school lunch program we used to have back in the day, I liked the pizza and chow mein especially. Maybe the kids could get some good cooking at school instead.
... the GOP will do that right after they 'fix' healthcare.
"Ketchup is a vegetable, isn't it?"
-- Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the U.S. and senile cowboy.
when it went to hell, Remember every school had their own kitchen and cooks? My mom was one at the public junior high, so was my best friends mom at the Catholic school
The lasagna was good too.
... and there were standard offerings on most days - burger, hot dog, tuna sandwich. Tuesdays were enchiladas, fridays was cheese pizza - both of which you had to order by 8:30 AM (so they did this with roll call) so the ladies running the kitchen could cook enough.
was still there (at the public school) when the cooks disappeared, only the "servers" remained and they started shipping food in from a private food outfit, the running joke was that they were having "cooked cook" today. ;)
only because California voters, through I&R declared that only free range redwoods could be served in the school lunch program. The cost of free range redwoods versus farm raised redwoods proved too high to muster the two thirds vote required in the Assembly so a substitute was necessary.
Complimentary packages of ketchup are still handed to passengers departing from Reagan National Airport on days when flights are controlled by non-union trainees.
The Corporatists and their Republican and Democratic servants in the gov't still have much work to do.
Shipping our industrial/manufacturing base abroad was and continues to be successful.
But the uberwealthy will be satisfied only when our hunger pangs dictate that we will jump at the chance to work for two bucks an hour.
We must manufacture EVERYTHING right here in America. We need another trillion dollar stimulus used to invest into building energy-efficient manufacturing facilities all over this country. We will ultimately become isolationists. but what is so bad about that? Bring our troops home to guard our borders, profit-free manufacturing owned by the government paying real wages, discounts on all American-made goods with full healthcare benefits.
The deregulated private sector with tax cuts that have never before been seen in the history of America has put us here. When 90-95% of the wealth is owned by 1% of the richest rich, there lies the problem.
Socialism has rarely been a "choice" for survival, but a necessity for society as a whole. If the private sector can be kept in check under strict regulation while competing with government-owned businesses, only then will America and the working class come back!
Call me a commie if you wish, but this IS the only way!
Gov Perry is doing a bang-up job keeping the poor in their place while keeping the rich secure. Who needs the federal government and their stimulus when we got Big Oil?!
This is the best way to get rid of the poor in our great state! Starve them out! If they can't find food here, they gotta move elsewhere or die! Praise Jeebus!!
Profit is more important than hunger.
So sez the prophet Profit!
and... so... what about ADM's role in this?
will the News Hour ever take a moment, in a fit of journalistic integrity (ha), and expose their former sugar daddies at ADM?
*crickets*
If this trend continues this country will become a massive Jonestown. People who are hungry and overworked tend to let others do their thinking for them and are more prone to be attracted to expressions of emotional sympathy. These are the kind of people who will accept Glenn Beck, who resembles Jim Jones by crying for the common man while advocating ideas based on falsehoods that are bad for them.
and brought down the Tsar...hunger.
but you and your kids may be sick and hungry.
The "Greatest Country In The World" can't treat their sick, Can't Feed it's People, and support itself financially.
Seems to me the only people who still think America is "the greatest" fall into three categories.
(a) Those who have never been there.
(b) Those who have never been anywhere else.
(c) Sean Hannity.
what if we feed our obese to our starving? ...just brainstorming here
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